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Summer Fun: The Beach!

So we’ve been super busy here. It’s the summer time and we are just on the go go go go with vacations and birthdays. I think I can finally catch my breath and post an update about our beach trip!

We recently took a road trip 4 hours away to the beach. It was fantastic, tiring, and fun. Thankfully my 3 year old occupied himself the entire time by singing and the baby took her naps in her car seat. We stopped half way down at a Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and it happened to have a play place so my son could run around while we waited for our food. On the way back was the same as well, but we stopped at Cracker Barrel instead. My son had fun roaming the store and we played a little eye-spy in the restaurant.

The beach itself was interesting. Armed with a lot of sand toys, my son enjoyed the beach. At one point we really didn’t need the toys because he enjoyed chasing the seagulls. Go figure. My daughter enjoyed the beach and ocean so much. She did not mind the waves coming in and she just splashed around like it was bath time.

One thing I highly recommend, and researched for a month leading up to our beach trip, is a little cabana/tent. I wanted one that was large enough for the kids to play or nap in; something that was easy to set up and take down; and something that wouldn’t take up a lot of space in our car. The Lightspeed Outdoors Quick Cabana Beach Tent Sun Shelter totally fit the bill! It opens and closes kind of like an awkward umbrella. I think it was awkward for us since my husband and I are fairly short (he’s 5’7″ and I’m 5’2″). But my husband managed to get it set up fairly quickly. I also loved the little pockets on the sides of the tent to weigh it down with sand. It also comes with stakes if you want to tie it down on grass surfaces. I put a picnic blanket down because previous reviews said that the mat gets really hot when exposed to sunlight. Inside you can easily set down two beach chairs, like the Tommy Bahama ones, and still have a lot of room for sand toys, coolers, beach bags, babies! Depending on the time of day, the tent will provide a shadow at the front. So my son was playing in the sand right outside of the tent and wasn’t in the harsh sunlight. When it’s broken down, it is just slightly bigger lengthwise than a camping chair. How awesome is that?! The windows were great and allowed a breeze to flow through, but could be easily shut to stop the sunlight from burning a child. It’s a bit pricey, but for us totally worth it because we plan on using it for future beach visits. So if you are in the market for one, I really recommend this one!

Overall our trip was quite the success. My son at one point had the quintessential beach day: no nap, sand, beach, ice cream, funnel cake, and fried chicken tenders with fries. The only problem with a great long weekend at the beach is returning back to reality. But imagine that with a threenager…